The invention relates to vehicle front lights and reflectors, and more particularly to a unitary assembly for mounting, on each side of a vehicle front, the headlight or headlights, turn signal, and other lights and reflectors, if desired.
Numerous different mounting arrangements have been suggested and used for vehicle headlights, turn signal lights, reflectors, side marker lights and other front lights. For example, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,639,748, 3,090,858 and 3,032,645. U.S. Pat. No. 3,498,538 shows an automobile headlight mounting system with an air inlet in the vicinity of the headlamps. While these prior arrangements have been satisfactory, they have not provided a particularly efficient means for installing the various lights or of maintaining or replacing them. Typically, a mounting unit is provided for each individual light or reflector, to be connected by screws or other fasteners to the vehicle body. Access to the lights from the rear is often difficult or cumbersome, and in the original assembly of the vehicle, each light with its accompanying mounting unit must be separately assembled on the vehicle body.
There has been a general need for a more efficient system of mounting a plurality of lights at each side of a vehicle front, particularly when there are a number of lights at each side, such as headlights, turn signal/parking light, reflector, and side marker light. Particularly in the case of large trucks, there has been a need for a unitary arrangement for mounting all of the lights together, and for connecting them efficiently as a single unit onto the body of the vehicle. Prior to the present invention, no such efficient arrangement was available.